“To celebrate the waking, wake. Burn in the daylong light… & praise.” – Muriel Rukeyser
May these grounds, walls, & the soul of the Franklinton Center remind us that we are a people who have always known how to burn in the daylong light.
I offer you praises & words too small to hold all the Light that the peaceful warriors of the NC Environmental Justice Network continue to harvest throughout this fertile ground of North Carolina.
An African proverb states that, “where you stand in your youth, will determine where you sit as an elder.” I can envision the sweet chairs of grace that await those who gather here laboring compassionately in the spirit of solidarity, community, & justice.
This poem is dedicated to The NC Environmental Justice Network & those who find rest in your arms
Tender messengers
clearing paths. seizing & shapeshifting sharp blows. calming storms that might bruise or wound our creativity or halt our peacemaking.
Let our rejoicing rise
Tender messengers
reshaping purposes & directions, harvesting the gifts that enable the holding of hands & hearts. harvesting plentitude across communities that need the medicine of the trembling voices of children & the ancient stitches of ancestors.
Let our rejoicing rise
Tender stewards
of all the tall trees staring back at you. we are all the forests you’ve planted. we are all the seeds that you have carried. we are the roots that you gather. we are the feast that you spread.
Let our rejoicing rise
NC Environmental Justice Network your legacy reminds us that there is knowledge in the rain, the silence of mountains, and the growth of new crops. Thank you for all the new poems. new songs. new dances. new colors. new medicine that our oceans. skies & tender breaths need.
NC Environmental Justice Network your legacy are fierce rainbows. skipping. flying. leaving no marks. as you spread fertile life across Carolina thresholds.
Let our rejoicing rise
NC Environmental Justice Network we gather with you as the architects of new promises & new realities offering a generosity of spirit that forever sings to give all we are in the least we ever do.
NC Environmental Justice Network we praise you on behalf of all human creatures, plants, animals, & water creatures of the natural world that you embrace with unconditional nurturance, advocacy, & protection.
NC Environmental Justice Center all the ancestors sing hosannas, hallelujahs, & masha’Allahs for your demand of development & sustainability going hand in hand. All the ancestors raise their hands into the wind saluting your disruption of the status quo in communities reclaiming environmental conservation & sustainable stability.
We your people.
We your people.
We all your people. We are all this poem. Capable hands, hearts, minds, & spirits linked joyously to this source of celebration.
We are all this poem singing… ancestors & unborn seeds joining us as we hug you forth… let our rejoicing rise.
Let our rejoicing rise high as the love you birth into a sky that will not bend. May our gratitude for the wonderment you weave whisper back to you over & over again as you welcome us to new magical mornings carrying the labor of love inside of solidarity, community, & justice.
Thank you.
Presented to
the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network
in Celebration of their 25th Annual NCEJN Summit
at Franklinton Center at Bricks, Whitakers NC
– October 18-20, 2024
Written & Read by NC Poet Laureate
Ms. Jaki Shelton Green
